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Instead, she forced herself to lift her chin willfully.
“Yours?” Pushing herself away from the wall, she breathed in roughly. “Not hardly, Stygian. Some damned chemical reaction does not make me yours. Nor does it make me even want to be yours. So maybe you should consider revising your bedside manner, stud, because this one is only pissing me off.”
With that, she stalked to the bathroom, slammed the door closed and locked it.
She sure as hell didn’t want him smelling that particular lie.
CHAPTER 11
Liza had learned over the years the fine art of the delicate lie as she worked, first with her father in the security division of the headquarters of the Navajo Nation, then as she began training to work with the Breed Underground Network.
Breeds could smell a lie or even the intent to deceive. Learning how to lie just in case it was a Breed one was conversing with had become second nature. Bu
t she had never had to learn how to lie about her attraction to a Breed, or her need. And lying about it was suddenly imperative. Otherwise, Stygian would end up with enough power over her to ensure that she was willing to do whatever he asked her to do. Just as she suspected Isabelle was willing to do whatever Malachi asked of her. Now, she understood, sort of, why her friend would stand so solidly with the man that called her “mate.” Especially if he gave her the illusion of respect and a choice.
Not that she discussed her suspicions with Stygian. He would of course deny all of it. After all, what man, or Breed for that matter, would want to admit that his woman didn’t have a choice.
Or did she?
As she showered, dressed and applied her makeup for work the next morning, she had to admit that she didn’t feel inclined to give Stygian anything other than sex. And honestly, the need for his touch was becoming so strong, so desperate she really wasn’t certain how long she would last before begging for it.
Crying for it.
Screaming for it.
It was really rather amusing if one looked at it from the right perspective. That was, if the person wasn’t the one suffering, then it would have been amusing, she told herself as they rode to the Nation’s headquarters that morning.
Yes, she would have been very amused, if it wasn’t her burning alive from the inside with the need to feel his touch. His possession.
She was certain she should be traumatized from it, after all, as a virgin, she should have been terrified of so much hunger for something she’d never experienced before.
“I think you should put in a request for a leave of absence as long as this situation in progress,” Stygian finally spoke as the black, unmarked Bureau of Breed Affairs SUV pulled up to the front entrance of the Navajo Nation Headquarters.
“I think you should do your job and let me do mine.” She clenched her teeth and cursed herself for the quick, uncensored response.
Damn, she hadn’t wanted to be quite so confrontational.
She hadn’t wanted to be, but her body felt miserable. She was too sensitive, her flesh too warm, her breasts too swollen and her clit far too tender.
She was too aroused and too upset and too many other things to even consider dealing with him on a less hostile basis.
Because, of course, it was all his damned fault.
“What did you want me to do, Liza?” He caught her arm before she could open the door. “Take advantage of the situation without giving you a chance to consider where it’s going?”
And, of course, he just had to step forward and throw himself full force into that confrontation didn’t he?
“Because I’m so damned stupid I couldn’t possibly have known it was headed straight to one of those nice big beds,” she agreed mockingly. “Why, you did the right thing, of course, Stygian. Far be it for you to allow yourself to just be male for a change. To let the situation go and have a little fun. I agree, that would be so very uncalled for.”
Damn it.
Pressing her lips together tightly, she promised herself she was going to keep the smart remarks to thought only.
What the hell was wrong with her? She couldn’t hold back her need for him, her anger with him, or her verbal responses that she’d never had a problem keeping to herself before. For the first time in her life, she really wanted a man. Wanted him so badly that even before he shared that tasty hormone and this burning lust with her, she’d ached for him. She had wanted him like nothing she had wanted in her life before him.
The knowledge of that was simply terrifying, because the reaction to him was so strong, so overwhelming that it felt as though it were coming from someone entirely different than the person she knew herself to be.
More than once she had felt the power of it, a surge of possessiveness and lust that she could barely contain, mixing with a response so primal as to be more animal than human. As though the need for him, the “mating” as they called it, made her more Breed than human.
